


a good life

by iori_sempai



Category: BlazBlue
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Necromancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 03:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4123554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iori_sempai/pseuds/iori_sempai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magic isn't real, until you need it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a good life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shinkirou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinkirou/gifts).



“Sister... does magic really exist?” Jin mumbles the question so quietly that he's honestly surprised when he gets an answer.

“It does,” Sister tells him. “I think there's a little bit of magic inside everyone. That's why when a lot of people believe in something, it's more likely to happen.”

Jin wrinkles his nose. “Not that kind of magic. I mean like... magic potions. And spells.”

“Don't be silly. If anyone tells you that they know magic, or that they'll teach it to you, they're probably trying to trick you.” Her tone hardens slightly as she says, “Even if it seems like they're telling the truth, I don't want you to mess with something like that.”

“But if it's not real, why does it matter?”

“If it's powerful, you could easily get hurt... or hurt someone else.” The worried look on Sister's face softens. “There's magic inside of you, too, remember? If you start playing around with spells and curses, you might lose what little you have.”

Jin bites his lip. She'd sounded a bit too stern for that to be the only reason. He decides to listen to her warnings, but he doesn't tell her about the book.

 

“How's Saya?”

Ragna gives him a tense smile. “She'll be okay, Jin.”

He's hiding something, just like Sister had been earlier. Jin doesn't like that everyone withholds information from him, as if he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Jin sneaks into Saya's room at night, when the pale moonlight makes her face look even whiter. Her sunken cheeks twitch into a smile when Jin holds her hand. It's thinner than the last time. Jin wonders if one day, he'll come in to find that she's withered away completely.

“Jin-nii-sama...” Saya's voice is a shadow of its old cheerfulness, lost months ago in the long winter. “I'm scared.”

“Me too,” he whispers. “You're really sick.”

“Will... I get better?”

“I hope so,” Jin tells her. Unlike Ragna and Sister, he can't give her a sweet-sounding lie.

For a second, he thinks about the book buried deep under the old oak tree. Sister had advised him against it, and he doesn't want it to backfire like she said it could. Instead, Jin wants to believe in Sister's idea of magic. Him, Ragna, and Sister are all wishing hard for Saya's recovery-- like that, Saya had to get better, right?

 

But that magic is too weak to do anything.

After two weeks, Saya is dead. Ragna says it looks like she's sleeping before they lay her to rest, but Jin thinks Saya's body looks so incredibly empty that he would never be mistaken. Jin doesn't cry until Sister and Ragna have finally managed to fall asleep, and no one can hear him.

 

Losing Saya takes its toll on them all. Ragna doesn't get very much sleep. Jin pretends he doesn't notice when he goes into Saya's room and comes back with reddened eyes.

Sister's slight cough becomes more frequent, and sometimes he can hear her wheezing in the morning. Fear grips Jin when he sees the weakness in her smile. Ragna and Sister don't say anything to him, but he can feel the tension in the room when they're all together. Sometimes Ragna looks incredibly pained, and others, his lips are pressed flat and his eyes are blank, like he's trying not to feel anything at all. Jin doesn't know what he hates more.

“Jin,” Sister says finally. “I've been talking to your brother about something for awhile. You've both been stuck here for a long time, haven't you? You've both gotten so big now... I think it's about time you saw more of the world.”

They would be moving...? The nearest town was more than a day away, and tiny at that. It was very rare that Jin and Ragna had met any outsiders. There's a part of Jin that's excited about the idea of adventure and getting to see new things, but there's something wrong with her words, isn't there? Not _we_ , she used, but _you_. Sister... is sending them away?

“Won't you come with us?” Jin asks her.

“I can't,” she says. “I have to protect this place."

The thought of leaving her behind makes Jin's anticipation fall away to anxiety. “Then... we'll protect it with you!”

Sister shakes her head at that. “It's okay, Jin. I know someone who can take good care of you both. So don't be scared.”

“It's because...” Jin's voice trembles as he whispers, “you're dying, isn't it?”

Sister reaches out to pet his hair, and gives him a sad smile.

“I can help! Sister, when I asked about magic before, it was because I found a book. It's.. it's a real spellbook, so I know it can save you if I use it!” Jin blurts out everything he'd been keeping secret. He hadn't told anyone about its existence, not even Ragna.

What he doesn't expect is for the kindness in Sister's face to turn to shock and worry. Her gentle hand drops to grip firmly at his shoulder. “No! Jin, don't ever use that book. Not for me, and not for anything.”

“Sister...?” Jin knew it back then, that Sister had been hiding her true feelings about magic. “So... it's really real?”

Sister frowns. “What I know about magic is that it can be very dangerous. Magic..,. works by offering up things in equal measure. Do you understand? If you want to save me, you'll have to use things that are just as precious to you.”

“But... even if that is true...!”

“You don't want to trouble your big brother, do you?” At Sister's words, Jin freezes. “You need to be strong for him, so you can't lose anything because of magic.” She takes in a deep breath and squeezes his shoulder lightly. “Okay?”

Jin looks at his feet for a long time before he answers. “...Okay.”

 

Instead of letting Sister send them away, Ragna is able to convince her to let them stay until the end. He and Jin bury Sister next to Saya, but find themselves unable to comply with her final wishes. Though she had wanted them to go out into the world, Jin doesn't want to leave the only real home they've ever known.

“Is it really okay if we stay here?” Jin asks carefully.

“We have everything we need... I can ride to town to get supplies when we need them... and we still have the chickens and garden. I think we'll be okay. If we're not okay, we'll go find Sister's friend like she wanted.” Ragna sounds so confident in his plan that Jin feels at ease trusting it completely.

“I hope we can live here for awhile,” Jin tells him. “I want to stay here, where we lived with Saya and Sister.”

Ragna's eyes widen. A bittersweet smile comes to his face as he reaches for Jin's hand. “Me too, Jin.”

 

It happens right before Jin's 17th birthday. The nearly two year streak of living on their own with only a few scrapes and mishaps comes crashing down, entirely broken.

Ragna had said he wanted to fix the leaky rooftop, but Jin didn't think he would get started on it when he was out fetching water from the well. The scene when he returns is even worse than any in his nightmares.

Ragna laid out in the grass, blond hair soaked with red blood, a wet puddle of it seeping into the ground.

Jin drops the heavy pail and takes off toward Ragna's body, his sight getting dark as he kneels down to him. “Nii-san!” Head wounds bleed a lot, he remembers hearing, but this is far too much blood for anyone to be okay. Jin shouldn't move him, but he needs to find the wound so he can staunch the flow of blood. It doesn't take much jostling for Jin to find it, Ragna's head had turned to the side slightly after impact.

But what he feels is-- too much. Not a cut. Bone fragments. Wet, soft pieces just under matted hair, and when he lowers his hand the grass... a hammer. How stupid, how unlucky did his brother, did Jin have to be? For Ragna to drop his hammer from the roof, come tumbling after it, and smash his skull open like a dumbass?

But Ragna can make it through anything. Even after all that, no matter how much pain he has to be in, he's just sleeping. Unconscious.

(So why isn't he breathing?)

When Jin presses his fingers to Ragna's throat he feels nothing. He hears nothing. Everything disappears.

Dead?

Nii-san is dead?

Nii-san is dead, too, and there's no one else?

_thebookthebookthebookthebookthebook_

Sister told him to be strong for Ragna, but what's the use in that when Ragna isn't around to be strong for! Jin'll sacrifice anything for him. It doesn't matter. He'll do it!

Not since he'd first found it years ago had he even looked at the thing. It had scared him. The second he'd opened it, a cold gust had blown through him, and when he closed it, the book's cover iced over, as if in a show of authenticity. Magic. Real magic.

But Jin needs that power now, no matter what. He digs his fingers into the dirt at the foot of the oak tree, until his nails scratch the leathery surface of the book. Jin drags it out and flings it open, flipping the pages so fast that it's a wonder they don't tear.

200 pages later:

_Spell of Resurrection:_

The ring finger of a loved one  
The head of one who loved  
The lifeblood of the one who loves  
The eye of the deceased

For all the ingredients that Jin expects to read, this list leaves him dumbfound. It required... body parts...? But Jin said he'd do anything, and he will, won't he? He reads the directions for the ceremony as the rest of his mind dwells on the strange list.

A loved one. One who loved. The one who loves. Somehow, Jin understands the meaning before he can put it into words. Saya. Sister. And himself. He needs to dig. And quickly-- _“Efficacy decreases severely 24 hours after death.”_

Jin wraps Ragna's body in his bed sheets and brings him inside, laying him on the floor of the church. “I'll be back soon. I'll make everything alright,” Jin murmurs.

 

Jin never thought he'd be going to Saya and Sister's graves with a shovel in hand, not so soon. He'd always planned to die first, so he didn't have to experience the pain of losing Nii-san, but... No. He would still be able to do that, wouldn't he? He just needs to hurry up.

It had taken him and Ragna almost a day to dig Sister's grave, but Jin digs like his life depends on it (and it does). Eight hours later, the sun has set, and Jin has finally uncovered both of their coffins. He needed a finger from Saya. And Sister's... Sister's... Jin keeps in the nausea, even as the smell of death settles in his nose when he cracks Saya's casket open.

He doesn't look at her face. Thankfully, he doesn't have to.

He wouldn't have that luxury with Sister.

Jin reaches for the cleaver he'd taken from the kitchen and looks down at the folded arms on her chest. “I'm sorry, Saya.”

He pulls Saya's arm over to the edge of the coffin and wretches her ring finger away from the rest. There's still leathery skin sticking to the bone, keeping it attached, so he uses the cleaver to slash through it. After scooping the finger up, Jin stuffs it into the pillowcase he'd brought along. He sets Saya's hand back over her chest and closes the lid as fast as he can.

He... he can do it. He _is_ doing it. Now all that's left is... Sister's... head. Jin moves to the other half of the large hole, where Sister's coffin lay. He's prepared for the smell to be stronger as he pries off the lid, but what he finds waiting for him is even more horrifying.

“Sister...?” Jin gasps as he looks at her body. It's... incredibly well preserved. Her skin looks firmer, tighter on her bones, and she had thinned, but it looks as if she had only died days or weeks before. Not years. Jin looks at her face and sees the same peaceful expression that had been there when she passed. His eyes burn hot, revulsion surging through him as he sets the edge of the cleaver against her neck.

Jin sucks in a breath. A deep breath. “I have to be strong for Nii-san... right, Sister?” Jin whispers. That's why... she'd forgive him, surely. He repeats that mantra in his head over and over again, each time the blade goes down on her throat. It feels like an incredibly long time before it makes it all the way through, and Jin can pull the head away from the rest of the body.

Jin's stomach flips, and he's just barely able to bag the severed head before he wretches, emptying the little contents of his stomach onto the deep soil. A few more dry gags and Jin forces himself back to the task at hand.

 

He rinses his mouth when he gets home, trying not to think about the misshapen bag settled on the floor, or what he's about to do. Jin rereads the book's instructions, setting up the circle just as directed. Next is... Nii-san. Jin had disinfected one of Sister's prized silver spoons to use for the job-- the smoothest of all the house utensils. Jin doesn't want to harm Nii-san's body anymore than he has to.

With a careful hand, the eye comes out more easily than he expected. After snipping it free, Jin adds it to the rest of the ingredients and pulls the bag to the center of the circle, beside Ragna's body. The final component would be his blood. With a sharp knife, Jin slashes open his palm. The pain hardly even registers past his exhaustion and determination. He squeezes out the blood onto the dirty pillowcase, and reads the book's incantation aloud, lighting the center candle.

A wind whips through the church, ice cold, igniting Jin's chest with hope.

Jin hopes this works, more than he'd wanted Saya to get better, more than he'd wished for Sister to stay beside them. He'll give up every bit of magic and spirit and luck in his body if it means Ragna will _live._

The temperature drops so low that Jin can't stop shivering, but his trembling lips continue the words, not missing a beat. There's a burst of light the moment he reaches their end, and everything goes completely dark.

 

His head hurts, but he's able to open his eyes slowly. He turns his head to the side, blinking blearily, and catches sight of a young man with blond hair at his bedside. Relief sweeps through him in an instant. _You're okay._

The bed creaks as he sits up, and the man jumps in his seat. “Jin!” he says, eyes wide. “You're awake. How are you feeling?” The deeply concerned frown on his face makes him feel unbelievably nostalgic.

“Happy,” he answers, honestly. The pounding headache has faded completely, and now a light, bubbly feeling is growing in his chest. He gets a blank stare in response, so he explains, “When I look at your face, I feel really happy.”

“What are you saying, you dumbass!” he sputters. “You had me worried sick! You've been asleep for two days.” The man runs a hand through his hair in exasperation and glares down at him with those deep green eyes (no, just one?).

It's so good to see that expression, to see him scowl and move and hear his voice again. He can feel tears welling up in his eyes, but he forces them back. If he's happy, it's better to smile, isn't it?

“...What's wrong?” the man asks, the worried look returning his face.

“You called me Jin,” he says, smiling widely. “Is that my name?”


End file.
